


feathered friendship

by owlinaminor



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 05:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9109531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlinaminor/pseuds/owlinaminor
Summary: The bird chirps quietly.  Wakatoshi leans in closer – he isn’t sure what it is about the creature’s dark eyes, but he feels as though he can understand it.  It’s a good bird, he decides.  A noble bird.  A worthy bird.He looks at the bird for another few minutes, then turns and approaches the counter.“How much for the very good bird?” he asks.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [miracleboysatori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miracleboysatori/gifts).



> for kat - my favorite ushiten artist, one of the best people i've met in the haikyuu fandom, and someone i feel honored to call my friend. i hope this cheers you up. ❤❤❤
> 
> thanks to [becky](https://twitter.com/dickaeopolis) for betaing!

Wakatoshi goes running in the same direction every morning.

He wakes with the sunrise, pulls on sweatpants and sneakers, and slips out the door, shutting it softly behind him.  The street is quietly humming, car engines starting and birds calling to each other as the city begins to come alive in time with the slow lightening of the sky – indigo to violet to reddish-orange, a transition easy as the motion of Wakatoshi’s legs, one step after another.  The sidewalk is smooth, broken only by a few cracks where small plants sprout up from between the concrete.  There are few enough cars on the roads that Wakatoshi doesn’t have to look more than once at intersections – he can just sprint across, thigh muscles burning pleasantly as he stretches.

Wakatoshi and Satori’s apartment is located in a residential neighborhood, a short train ride away from the barely-contained chaos of the inner city.  Their street stretches on for many kilometers, leading to block after block of condominiums with occasional small shops.  It’s no trouble for Wakatoshi to jog along the sidewalk for at least half an hour, headphones playing an album of classical music Reon gave him for his last birthday.  The chance he’ll get lost is less than one percent.

Wakatoshi goes running in the same direction every morning.  But this morning, he’s gone further than usual – he woke up particularly early today, roused by a dream he no longer remembers – and finds himself in a new neighborhood.  He turns into a small parking lot and stops to stretch against a telephone pole, surveying the plaza around him: there’s a café, a ramen shop, an art store, a jewelry store, a pet shop.

The pet shop in particular catches Wakatoshi’s eye.  It’s the only one that seems to be open right now, and has a bright orange with a graphic of a shiba inu waving its tail at the viewer.  Wakatoshi is a fan of shiba inus – he’s a fan of all dogs, for that matter.  He finishes stretching and approaches the store.

A bell chimes as Wakatoshi opens the door.  There don’t appear to be any customers in the store – just a short, silver-haired woman in a faded green apron who smiles at him kindly as he enters.

“Can I help you find anything?” she asks.

Wakatoshi shakes his head.  “Just looking.”

And look he does – at the huge cage full of puppies playfully nipping at each other’s heels, at the large aquarium of fish in every shape and color, at the smaller aquariums featuring lizards, snakes, and iguanas, most of them still sleeping.  One of the lizards, a dark green monitor with fire-red coloring around her head and neck, reminds him of Satori.

But then, Wakatoshi notices the birds.  The back wall of the store is lined with wire birdcages, each occupied: with bluebirds, canaries, cockatiels, macaws, even a parrot that squawks a loud “GOOD MORNING” when Wakatoshi passes him.  And at the end of the row is a small cage for a very small bird – white and fluffy, with a bright yellow beak and wide black eyes.  It reminds Wakatoshi of a pincushion, or a cottonball, or maybe even a particularly aggressive cloud.

“Hello,” Wakatoshi says, bending down to look at the bird.  “How are you?”

The bird just stares at him, in response.

“I’m doing well, thanks for asking,” Wakatoshi tells his new friend.

The bird chirps quietly.  Wakatoshi leans in closer – he isn’t sure what it is about the creature’s dark eyes, but he feels as though he can understand it.  It’s a good bird, he decides.  A noble bird.  A worthy bird.

He looks at the bird for another few minutes, then turns and approaches the counter.

“How much for the very good bird?” he asks.

* * *

When Wakatoshi returns home, Satori is lying across three kitchen chairs, a mug of coffee balanced on his stomach.

Wakatoshi closes the door quietly behind him, sets his new friend down on the counter, then moves Satori’s coffee to the table.  Their pale blue linoleum floor is easy to clean from spills, but Wakatoshi would prefer not to have to take advantage of that feature today.

He leans down to press a kiss to Satori’s forehead, taking in a whiff of his banana-scented shampoo.  “Good morning.”

“Hey,” Satori replies.  He pushes himself into a seated position but keeps his legs extended – so that he’s now taking up two chairs instead of three.  “You were gone for a long time today.  I had to wake up all by myself, alone in bed – it was so cold.  _So cold,_ Wakatoshi.”

“Sorry,” Wakatoshi says.  “I had to walk all the way back.”

“What?  Why?”  Satori sits up completely, surveying his partner up and down to check for injuries.  “Did something happen?  Are you hurt?”

“I made a new friend,” Wakatoshi tells him.  He walks over to the counter and opens the wire cage, then takes out the baby eagle, cradling her carefully in his hands the way the woman at the pet shop showed him.  Her feathers are soft, tickling his palms.

Satori turns around to look – and topples out of his chair with a _thump._

“Satori?” Wakatoshi asks.  He leans over (bird safely in tow) to check on his partner, now flat on his back on the ground.  “You okay?”

Satori covers his hands with his eyes.  _“No,”_ he whines.  “And I’m not sure I ever will be again.  That’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.  _Ever.”_

“I don’t know,” Wakatoshi replies.  “Mikasa’s great, but she’s not as adorable as you.”

Satori uncovers his eyes, and finds that Wakatoshi has returned his new friend to her cage, and is now holding out a hand to Satori.  Satori takes it – Wakatoshi’s hand is warm and sweaty from his run, but his strength as he pulls Satori up is steady as ever. 

For a moment, they stand still there, in the middle of the kitchen – Satori’s hand enveloped in Wakatoshi’s, warm brown eyes meeting gold-hazel, the world narrowing around them.  Wakatoshi tilts his head down and Satori tilts his up – and they meet easily, naturally, in these steps of a dance they’ve been performing for years, performing just for each other.

“Wait,” Satori says, several minutes later.  “Did you name her _Mikasa?_   Like, the Attack on Titan character?”

Wakatoshi stares blankly.  “No, like the volleyball company.”

“Well, I’m going to pretend it’s after the Attack on Titan character.”

“Whatever makes you happy.”

From anyone else, that answer would sound incredibly sarcastic – but Satori knows Wakatoshi is never anything but sincere, and the thought has him smiling for the rest of the day.

* * *

Satori gets a picture of Wakatoshi with his new friend, Mikasa.

The photo is taken in their kitchen, the golden morning light emanating in from the windows negating any need for a filter.  Mikasa is her adorable, downy self, and Wakatoshi is smiling softly down at her, looking as though he would be perfectly content to live in this moment for the rest of his life.

The photo earns Satori fifty-six likes on his Instagram – not to mention an angry call from Tsutomu saying that, when he saw it, he screamed loudly enough in the middle of his office that he nearly got himself fired.

**Author's Note:**

> [a picture of baby eagles](http://assets.atlasobscura.com/article_images/28203/image.jpg), for reference
> 
> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/owlinaminor) & [tumblr](http://owlinaminor.tumblr.com/)!


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